Something Worth Reading.

http://au.rottentoma … ed_the_electric_car/
Yes, who DID kill the Electric car?
This is a movie I highly suggest everyone should watch. A real eye opener.
This is not a fictional film but a documentary. If you are not going to watch the movie, spend 5 minutes reading the rest of this entry and save yourself an hour and a half of movie watching. If you want to watch this movie, disregard.

I had an idea of what was going to presented thinking I knew it all when in fact, it covers a lot without being too rushed to explain so much in a short time leaving most people confused.
It explains that C.A.R.B. (California Air Resources Board) started a strict rule in 1990 to ensure that at least 10% of all cars on the road had to be electric by 2000. It delve into how all the car companies both complied and argued the rule. GM (General Motors) were the first to pioneer EV1 (with other companies soon to follow like the Ford Th!nk. There are interviews with people of importance and relevance whilst not shedding particularly positive light on many of its targets. It shows how close the relationship is between politician, car manufacturer CEOs and Oil Companies prevent the world from becoming a better place to be due to greed and control. I gotta give those environmental activists A+ for trying to keep the electric car from going to the bottom of the waste heap but essentially, money talks and bullshit walks. You can protest all you like but the only way an idea like this can come to fruition is by a huge monetary backing which is what GM were prepared to do (up to a point) to see if these electric cars were a viable profit for the company. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, with any corporation or company the only line that they care about is the bottom line and it does NOT turn a profit, it gets dropped quicker than a handful of rodent shit.
There was lies after lies on why it would not take off and false promises like how they marketed their product. And really, this can not be solely blamed on GM although it was the focal point for a lot of the film. Because if any of the other cars were marketed properly, it would have created a competitive industry in which the electric car could have been developed, upgraded and continually built and designed better. It was demonstrated that the Hummer was advertised against the EV1 as a more superior machine and sold more than the EV1. Of course, the Hummer consuming ridiculous amount of petrol. GM blamed the consumer for not wanting an EV1 but there were lists of people who DID want an EV1 and they were not being made fast enough to respond to demand. Then GM said they could not persuade the consumers mind what they wanted. When people said they didn’t want a Hummer, they were advertised as being large, safe cars on the road. And they cost more but GM would not sell a EV1. They were for lease only so when the lease ran out, instead of having the option to renew, they took all the cars and crushed them all up and put them through a shredder quite like the paper kind.

One of the arguments was that the battery in them would only 80 miles before it needed to be recharged. The amazing thing was that a better battery was already available to put into the electric car that would have done 300 miles before a battery recharge. So why didn’t they? Recharging was extremely cheap. You had something you install in your home or do it at a recharging station. But consumers are part to blame because even though the initial release of the car could only do 80 miles per trip, consumers were scared that it wouldn’t be enough when it was shown that on average, consumers were only doing 28 miles per day. People said it was slow and although that was sort of true (with some of the models it could only do 90k/hour - Ford Th!nk being one of them), the GM EV1 was capable of doing 90 miles an hour which far exceeds any of our speed restrictions on our roads. And as demonstrated by numerous videos shows, it was not slow to take off, either.

Once the car was finally killed it still didn’t really get rid of the major problem at hand: when the petroleum supplies run out, where do you go from here? The initial response was that there was deposits in Well, first it was suggested that Alaska has enough deposits to fuel all of America for just over a week. Then, there was the suggestion of a Hydrogen-fueled car. It had Bush believing that this was a remarkable piece of technology but as the movie went on to explain, the car companies only planned on using this as a last resort and said it is still 30+ years off being released to the public as it was still in the design/construction phase. This was followed in the movie with a clip of a gentleman who was trialling out a Ford-produced Hydrogen car. This car was about to get 120 miles to a tank. If they are turning to Hydrogen as an alternative, either we have run out of Petrol or the only people would could afford it were the wealthy. The only problem with it (apart from the fact that you have to replace every petrol station with a hydrogen station which would cost phenomenal amounts of money), was that Hydrogen itself is an expensive resource. Petrol has (over) tripled in price over in the States from 3 years ago. The price of a Gallon (~3.8 litres) is now about $3.50USD ($4.20AUD). In Australia we pay more than that. I assume this is due to transportation costs. Where is the line where people are going to say, “I’m not going pay that for Petrol. Fuck that.”?

Why does any of this matter? Because in places like California (New York, Mexico City, Etc), to be blunt, their air is fucked. People are developing breathing problems, lung infections and all sorts of nasty shit. In the early 1990s, they had to send out a level 1 smog warning to California because their air has become so poor. What is fucked about this, is these sorts of physical ailments problems began popping up around the late 80s/early 90s. So if it were bad then, today it must be the pits to live in. One of the things were take for granted where we live - clean air. Although with our ever-growing population, this could happen to us too one day. The only way this could happen is if our population reached the heights similar to that of the forementioned cities in the lifetime of petrol/oil.

The film did end on a high note. While everything had been shot down for the Electric car and plans to make the car again any time soon were completely destroyed, car companies did eventually comply (somewhat) by introducing hybrid cars which are much more fuel efficient (the Korean made cars being far more efficient than American made). And the people who tried so hard for the EV1 have now gone on to other environmentally beneficial projects.

This movie was not only thought provoking, but just makes you angry at greed and capitalism at the expense of the environment. Plus, I also learnt a whole different side that I wasn’t aware of.

I was reading the paper for a laugh when I came across the horrorscope section. I don’t know how much this wacked out woman gets paid to come out with generalisations that could apply to anyone but have people who actually believe this is even more amazing.

So, here are my predictions:

Scorpio
October 24 - November 22Lucky numbers:9, Eleventy, Numberwang
You will die from a freak crab accident when you wake up and find yourself out in the middle of the desert. Don’t worry because there will be a cat on skis being pulled around on a motorboat in a lake. Or maybe that is just a desert-induced hullucenation.

Aries
March 21 - April 20Lucky numbers:10, 99, 80085
In a twist of irony, you will die from trauma to the anus after being raped in jail. This was from being being caught performing the act of bestiality. The authorities DID warn you about this before, you sicko.

Libra
September 24 - October 23Lucky numbers:1, S02, 983, AAA
Firstly, what kind of strange star do you come from that a naked man holding a weigh represents the time in which you are born? This week is going to be a very lucky day for you. You will get hammered and make a decision that involves making sweet love that is far uglier than you are. Oh, and I’d rug up if I were you. You won’t be her first like she claims. Those spots on her arse are not pimples.

Virgo
August 24 - September 23Lucky numbers:77, Doodle, IOU, $30
Oh darn. I picked that this is going to be a bad week for you out of a hat. Such bad luck but if you think that is where it stops, you are sadly mistaken. You will die a virgin. It’s not because you’re ugly because even through the eyes of a drunk, you seem midly appealing. It’s your personality. It’s nothing personal and I am not generalising here when I say most Virgo’s are repugnant. It doesn’t matter who you are, or your ethnicity, or your childhood, or your gender or which year you were born, you’re all horrible horrible people. When I look to the stars, I sigh and think to myself, “Ok Virgo, give me this weeks prediction, you bitch.”

Gemini
May 22 - June 22Lucky numbers:11, 35, QQ, Nipple
You will wake up, do a bunch of stuff and then go back to sleep again.
Rinse and repeat. Thanks, Weird Al.

Capricorn
December 22 - January 20Lucky numbers:Blue, 17, VD
Most Capricornians come from New Zealand. And well know what they get up to over there.
This week will be like every other week that involves a goat. How about this week you choose a Female goat?

Sagittarius
November 23 - December 21Lucky numbers:Any number, you lucky people.
You will die in your sleep at the age of 80. This is due to the fact that word got out to the ladies in the nursing home you live in about how big your penis is and how much of a great lover you are. One of the old dears slipped several Viagra into you dinner the night before and have been riding you all night long while you are asleep. You died from a heart attack probably bought on by lack of blood to the rest of your body, you very lucky man. In a turn of irony, your death produced rigor mortis and your body was suspiciously not reported for many days after your actual death from reasons previously mentioned.

Taurus
April 21 - May 21Lucky numbers:20/20, Doodle, 30-60-40
This week is gunna be good for you. You will get a promotion.
Failing that, a buddy will take you to a bar and will get laid by more than one woman. Any week where that happens is a good week. Again, failing that, you will lose your testicles in a botched sex change. Whether the sex change was botched or not, you were gunna lose both of them, anyway.

Leo
July 24 - August 23Lucky numbers:Twenteen, Numberwang, Scrotum
You will be mauled in a freak lion accident. Which is strange really because you live in the heart of the city and never venture out.

Hiya all!
Guess what?
That is right, the ever-popular iPhone just got worse:http://www.joystiq.c … ents-for-life-booyah
It takes your achievements (which can be every day mundane jobs that no one gives a shit about) and gives you reason to do them by giving you worthless points and sharing your achievements with others.
Here are some shining examples of what we are likely to see:

“Dear Booyah, regardless on your retarded name for an app, today I did 3 poos. This is a ‘crowning’ achievement over my 2 poos I did several weeks ago. And I thought THAT was a big day!” - Pathetic Loser
“I bench pressed 90KG today. I am strong. Like Hulk.” - Brainless Muscly Idiot
“I’ve cut my cigarettes down from a pack a day down to 19 a day. I’m on a 12 step plan to success! Man, I’m starting to feel shaky. Fuck, I could go for a cigarette.” - Addicted
“IM NEW TO COMPUTERS AND THIS APP LOOKS COOL HOW DO I TURN OFF THIS BIG FONT? I THINK MY IPHONE IS BROKEN” - Technologically Retarded
“I cleaned the house. +Domestic Tranquility - Unlocked!” - Alcoholic Housewife with far too much time.

But wait, the excitement doesn’t stop there. The best aspect of this is application is that it can now be streamed to Facebook or Twitter! YES! So to recap, this application is another piece of useless software that makes people believe that other people give a shit about every pointless thing they are doing at every minute of every day.
To put things into perspective, there are only a select few that read this the contents of website, sadly. I wish it were more but we all live the dream. And these people have less to say - a lot less. How would it be possible that anyone would care about the mendacity of your every day life which is less interesting than their own?

In Brisbane, they have recently implemented a new system: Go Via. What this is exactly is when you are using the toll roads (any highway/freeway that requires a few dollars to use and typically gets you to a selection of locations quicker than any other method) there is an item you attach to your car which you can top up and it keeps a certain amount of money on it and when you use the tolls, you are charged a certain fee depending on where you get on and off.

What they used to have were toll booths that were operated by people who used to never shave or had tidy hair. This was because these people hated themselves so much, they could not look in the mirror as it would induce vomiting. They would get all bi-polar every morning when they thought about the soul-crushing job they had working 12 hour shifts in a tiny box, dishin’ out change to people who were on their way to a better job. Some days, they would not even go to work. A selection of those people who didn’t go into work, would not even bother calling in.

So the government saw a better return in a set of cameras and device detectors that deducted an amount from your go via device. This meant not having to pay people constantly. There would be an initial outlay for the structures that held these cameras and device detectors in place, but would pay themselves off. So, in a twist of irony, the government did these people a favor those people who hated their job by letting them all go so now they have nothing to hate anymore. So those who were bi-polar before are now really far past the end of the rope.

Now the problem with this system is not only can you not see how much you have but how much the system is taking out. We only got our new device a little over a month ago and it is faulty. We have been on the tolls several times now and it is deducting money, only it is not letting us know when we do not have anything left in there. They have employed one person to run the Go Via helpdesk. I know it is only one person because we get the same cracker every time we call it and complain about how our device is not making a sound and each time they come back with, “Just wait a few more times and see if it does it again…”. The first time we called helpdesk and told them it did not make a beep, it did not take money from our device which was strapped to the car in the same position it always has. Then the helpdesk told us there was going to be a $1 administration fee to match up the photo of our car/number plate with the details we provided.

This whole program runs on the honesty system. You could be making several trips a day and find out that in the course of several months, the toll has gone up without warning and what was $2 per toll has now been bumped up to $3.50 and if you’re device is anything like me, you’re being billed/fined for having nothing on your go via piece of shit. This has been going on in other states for quite some time so those in other states, this is nothing new. But the thing I don’t get is to find out how much you are being charged requires you to logon to a website. How can so many people be trusting? Are they all going to get accounts? Doesn’t that seem inconvenient? So provide a convenient way to take money. And an inconvenient way to find out if you’re getting ripped. Amazing.